Throughout our life, we work to overcome adversity, to fall in love, to find purpose, we experience life’s sweet nectar and simultaneously work to overcome our past and embrace our present moment. Throughout our life, many of us feel as though we are running a race, a race that doesn’t end, a race filled with hardship, determination, and eventual clarity.
Throughout the years of my life, I’m learning, constantly learning, constantly seeing, and constantly feeling. I look into people, situations I find myself, and life with much love and open arms, more than I used to. With the same thought, I possess clarity from past living, past mistakes, and past triumphs that help me to formulate my perspective on life. Perspective is much different from perception, our perspective is carefully crafted with experience, understanding, learning from others, and garnished with love. Perception is what we think is happening, usually perception isn’t correct and takes us off target, further from the truth, and eventual derailment or sidetracking.
I find it funny, maybe not funny ha ha but funny strange, when I meet someone who makes a jump decision on another person, thinking they have them pegged, and using that perception to judge the same person. Recently, I was at the airport, a man walked up to the counter and held out his ticket to the baggage claim handler behind the counter. The baggage claim handler quickly dismissed him and told him to get in line. I looked the gentleman up and down, realizing he had no bags, and also determined he was from a Spanish speaking culture. I asked him if I could help, using the little Spanish I knew. As soon as I spoke, his face lit up and he asked me where his gate was located and how to get there, I told him, he smiled, we hugged one another, and he went on his way. The baggage handler told me thank you, he said, he didn’t know what the man wanted. In this situation, no one is to blame however, we tend to jump to conclusion and make snap decisions when it comes to others.
Often, we go back into our memory bank and make decisions on others based on our life, our past, or people and situations we’ve come into contact with. All of these are assumptions and I remember as a child, my Dad would say, making assumptions makes an ass out of you and me. I’ve never forgotten that because anytime I’ve made an assumption in the past, for the most part, I was wrong. We use assumptions to put a wedge between others and our self. It makes it easier for us to live our life, feeling as though we have a good beat on things, and to carry on.
However, with every moment, I realize the bigger picture. This life is awesome, radiant, and full of amazing opportunities that we may or may not see. It’s when we don’t recognize opportunities that we feel disillusioned, we feel as though we are always just scrapping by, and we find ourselves unhappy and disappointed. Throughout my life, some opportunities have honestly presented themselves in beautifully wrapped presents. However, that’s a rarity, many opportunities pose themselves as work, sacrifice, and ultimately time consuming. Not all time consuming sacrifice is an opportunity but some of it is, if performed correctly and with determination and honesty. The way we participate is directly related to the benefits we reap.
I find the way we define opportunity may change with time as well and we may begin to incorporate far difference definitions that at one time or another didn’t conjure opportunity in your mind. It’s time to begin to see where you are. Where you are is far more important than where you’ve been and where you are going. We tend to live in the past or the future with little passion and love for the present moment. It’s time to begin to see life’s splendor as you live in the moment, the present moment. The present moment is a gift we all receive, whether or not we recognize it, is another story. You can recognize the present moment by experiencing everything about it, the sounds, the smells, and your feelings about it. When we see the moment as a present instead of a means to an end, we can begin to embrace the moment. In my latest book, The 10 Day Challenge to Live Your True Life, I discuss “The Way of the Dog.” The way of the dog is aa philosophy I conjured one day when I was driving myself and my dog around town. I watched how he looked at all cars, sniffed everything, and seemed to enjoy every minute. It’s your turn to live by the way of the dog. By living this way, life is new, exciting, and alway interesting. You begin to embrace everything, perhaps for the first time, seeing life for what it is and not worrying about what it isn’t. 
